One by one, most of Metra’s board of directors took aim Wednesday at Amtrak, accusing the agency that owns Union Station of being unconcerned about Metra and its customers. Some suggested that Amtrak was not sincere when it apologized for the Feb. 28 snafu that caused chaos for more than 65,000 Metra riders.
“Deep in my heart, I don’t think Amtrak cares,” director John Plante said. “That’s the biggest problem we have. They are just collecting our money. That’s where they are at; it’s always where they have been at. Until we get better control of the situation, I don’t expect Amtrak to improve at all.”
Director Steve Palmer was more blunt: The apology offered by Amtrak “was a bunch of crap.”
“I am not satisfied, I am not happy,” Palmer said. “I want to know what we’re going to get out of this (from Amtrak) besides, ‘It won’t happen again.’”
The critiques were prompted by a report on Metra’s dismal February on-time performance by Metra’s chief operating officer, Bruce Marcheschi, who recounted the explanation Amtrak gave for the station shutdown, which began during the morning rush hour and affected operations the entire day.
According to Marcheschi, an Amtrak employee was doing some wiring for positive train control in an equipment room at the station when he slipped off a ladder step and allowed a live wire to touch an equipment rack. That shorted out the server that controls the station’s signal system.
That description has been the most detailed explanation yet of what went wrong that day. After the incident, Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson apologized for the incident and blamed the signal failure on “human error in the process of deploying a server upgrade in our technology facility that supports our dispatch control system.”
A followup statement from Scot Naparstek, Amtrak executive vice president and chief operating officer, acknowledged that the “human error” occurred during a PTC-related hardware installation.
“It was not possible to activate a back-up control system since the network component damage prevented communications to both the primary and back-up systems,” Naparstek said.
Marcheschi, as have others, faulted Amtrak for attempting to perform that kind of work during rush hour. “Honestly, this was a bad decision to do something like that at that time of the day, even if the man hadn’t fallen off the ladder,” he told Metra’s board.
Marcheschi and board members repeated a common refrain: that Metra, as a tenant at Union Station, takes the blame for problems beyond its control.
“It’s Amtrak that’s in control of the system, but its our brand name that’s out there,” Marcheschi said.
Director Rodney Craig agreed: “Metra doesn’t have that control (over Union Station). We’re relying on somebody with a hope and a prayer that nothing happens,” he said.
Craig admitted that “kicking” Amtrak might not be the “politically astute thing to do.”
Director Don De Graf suggested that Metra’s lease agreement with Amtrak needed to change. “They can own it, but we need to run it.”
The signal problem at Union Station began around 8:30 a.m. and affected six of Metra’s lines, the BNSF, Metra’s busiest; Milwaukee West and Milwaukee North; the Heritage Corridor; North Central and SouthWest Service.
Marcheschi pointed out that Metra was not aware that Amtrak had rented out its Great Hall for an international professional squash tournament. When trains are delayed, the Great Hall is used as a holding area for huge crowds of commuters. Metra was concerned about safety as a result, Marcheschi said.
